CONTACTABOUTFACEBOOKTWITTERPODCAST IPHONE APPANDROID APPAMAZON APPWINDOWS APPRSS
NEW FORUM

GOT THE MMATORCH APP YET?
iPhone & iPad
Android
Kindle Fire
Windows Phone
MMATORCH IPHONE APP

MMATORCH

All the MMA News • Plus Intelligent, Brilliant, Addictive Points of View!
Independently Covering MMA Since 1993 • No Big Corporate Bosses

Williams' Take
WILLIAMS: Kansas City Star Misses the Mercer for the Fedor
Feb 1, 2011 - 8:10:05 AM
WILLIAMS: Kansas City Star Misses the Mercer for the Fedor
DISCUSS ALL THIS IN OUR NEW MMATORCH FORUM
...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!



By Alex Williams, MMATorch Senior Contributor

Staff08Williams_120_13.jpg
On Friday, the Kansas City Star's sports section featured a front page story about Tim Sylvia. Sylvia's knockout loss to Abe Wagner took place later that night in KC. Now, far be it from me to find fault with my hometown newspaper prominently covering MMA, but in discussing the UFC and Strikeforce's current lack of interest in "Big Tim," the Star's Sam Mellinger wrote:

"Things might be different for [Sylvia] now if he had beaten Fedor Emelianenko in his first fight after leaving the UFC. At the time, many considered Emelianenko the world’s premier fighter, and Sylvia tapped out in the first round. After that, he was forced to wade through MMA’s minor leagues. . . . If he had beaten Emelianenko, who knows what Sylvia might be doing now?"

What Mellinger doesn't mention is that Sylvia followed the loss to Emelianenko by coming in embarrassingly overweight and getting knocked out in nine seconds by former heavyweight boxing contender Ray Mercer. Mercer had lost his only previous MMA fight by submission to Kimbo Slice. 48 years of age at the time of the Sylvia match, he was no Herschel Walker. Surely Sylvia's disgraceful performance against Mercer had more to do with his dearth of big fight opportunities than his loss to Fedor, arguably the greatest fighter in the history of the sport?

In an e-mail, I posed this question to Mellinger. He replied:

"Circumstances around [the Mercer] fight seemed really strange, but it probably was worth mentioning."

Well, yeah! This was a bit like an author penning a piece about Michael Jordan never making it in Major League Baseball, but blaming Jordan's coming up short on him not being as good as a reincarnated Mickey Mantle, as opposed to him not being as good as the worst outfielder in the league.





DON'T GO YET... WE SUGGEST THESE MMATORCH ARTICLES, TOO!
WILLIAMS: Why the lightweight division's lineal championship my be the last remaining outside of the UFC
Sayre's Law: A Petty Argument On Whether Or Not Chael Sonnen Can Defeat Jon Jones At UFC 159
WILLIAMS: Fight Psych - Did Hypnosis Improve Chael Sonnen's Fighting Abilities?

comments powered by Disqus
HERE ARE EVEN MORE ARTICLES THAT MIGHT INTEREST YOU

SELECT ARTICLES BY CATEGORY
SEARCH MMATORCH BY KEYWORD


MMATORCH CALENDAR OF EVENTS
CLICK HERE FOR LIST OF UPCOMING MMA EVENTS
CLICK TO SEE A UFC VIDEO BELOW

ARTICLES OF INTEREST ELSEWHERE
MMATORCH POLL - VOTE NOW!

Will T.J. Dillashaw and Urijah Faber eventually fight?
 
pollcode.com free polls

Do you think Daniel Cormier will defeat returning Jon Jones to legitimize UFC Light Heavyweight Title reign?
 
pollcode.com free polls

VOTE IN OR SEE RESULTS OF PREVIOUS POLLS

MMATORCH WEEKLY LIVECAST
Listen to the weekly MMATORCH LIVECAST on Blog Talk Radio


MMATORCH STAFF

EDITORS:

Wade Keller, supervising editor
(mmatorch@gmail.com)

Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)

STAFF COLUMNISTS:

Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey


Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.

MORE MMA SITES
CONTACTABOUTFACEBOOKTWITTERPODCAST IPHONE APPANDROID APPAMAZON APPWINDOWS APPRSS
THE TORCH: #1 IN COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT COVERAGE | © 1999-2013 TDH Communications Inc. • All rights reserved -- PRIVACY POLICY